Fixture rant

[Lighty64]

I very rarely rant about a subject but I really wished I knew the answer to this, because it does my bloody head in. every season 3 things happen (old age so please put right if I am wrong)

we always seem to play Arsenal away in the 1st half of the season, and always seem to play Liverpool at home. when was the last time either was the other way round.

with Chelsea, Man C and Man U, I think they flip around most seasons, but the 2 above always seems the same

also around November and December we seem to always have 3 London derbies consecutive (this season an international break), and on 2 occasions this Season our fixture v Chelsea is followed up the week after playing Arsenal.

the thing is a London derby has that little bit more edge (though ours went missing today) but it's getting really tiring.

even on other teams why do they set it for a team to face what they know are the 6 toughest matches on paper all so close together. the damage that could do to teams can make it tough to recover. yes I know everyone plays everyone over a season twice, but there is definitely something wrong in the way they set them up.

 

[Lighty64]

last time the v Liverpool was around the other way was 2007, with Arsenal 2012

 

[vegassd]

I very rarely rant about a subject but I really wished I knew the answer to this, because it does my bloody head in. every season 3 things happen (old age so please put right if I am wrong)

we always seem to play Arsenal away in the 1st half of the season, and always seem to play Liverpool at home. when was the last time either was the other way round.

with Chelsea, Man C and Man U, I think they flip around most seasons, but the 2 above always seems the same

also around November and December we seem to always have 3 London derbies consecutive (this season an international break), and on 2 occasions this Season our fixture v Chelsea is followed up the week after playing Arsenal.

the thing is a London derby has that little bit more edge (though ours went missing today) but it's getting really tiring.

even on other teams why do they set it for a team to face what they know are the 6 toughest matches on paper all so close together. the damage that could do to teams can make it tough to recover. yes I know everyone plays everyone over a season twice, but there is definitely something wrong in the way they set them up.

Really? That's not the Lighty I know!

In seriousness though, I doubt there is much to this. I think it would be very hard to create a schedule for even one team that would avoid having tough patches, so when you throw in the condition to plan all 20 teams at once and include consideration for same-city teams and external events that's a tough schedule to put together.

We can probably consider the five other "big" clubs as tricky both home and away so that's 25% of the season deemed as tricky. If we throw in the rest of the top 10 away games that makes it 14, then maybe the West Ham games and Palace/Fulham away as London derbies to make it 18 out of 38 games that could be seen as "tricky". That's almost half the season so practically impossible to avoid tough runs.

I think we do usually have the away NLD match first but no idea if that's by design or not.

 

[Monkey boy]

Somebody needs to be asking the question as to why we are playing away at Leicester at 7:45pm on Saturday when we are due to face Barcelona at the Nou camp on Tuesday.

 

[Lighty64]

Really? That's not the Lighty I know!

In seriousness though, I doubt there is much to this. I think it would be very hard to create a schedule for even one team that would avoid having tough patches, so when you throw in the condition to plan all 20 teams at once and include consideration for same-city teams and external events that's a tough schedule to put together.

We can probably consider the five other "big" clubs as tricky both home and away so that's 25% of the season deemed as tricky. If we throw in the rest of the top 10 away games that makes it 14, then maybe the West Ham games and Palace/Fulham away as London derbies to make it 18 out of 38 games that could be seen as "tricky". That's almost half the season so practically impossible to avoid tough runs.

I think we do usually have the away NLD match first but no idea if that's by design or not.

I rant at people moaning and criticising about the club when I think they are wrong, but very rarely rant about us even after a defeat.

the thing is I understand the permutations, but to of played 1 team 11 seasons running as a home fixture 1st and 70% of the time in the 1st 5 to 6 fixtures of the season looks like very lazy workings.

also with Arsenal I know it's pretty unlikely to happen while City will dominate, but if we was ever in a position for the title wouldn't it be great for us to play at the Library with 4 games to go and a 10pts lead (I know) and a chance of revenge after they have done it at the old lane twice

 

[dricha1]

Somebody needs to be asking the question as to why we are playing away at Leicester at 7:45pm on Saturday when we are due to face Barcelona at the Nou camp on Tuesday.

Barcelona are playing at the same time albeit a much easier opponent

 

[Lighty64]

Barcelona are playing at the same time albeit a much easier opponent

to be honest Barca might put a strong team out v weaker opponents and play an understrength v us (hoping) as it's pretty tight at the top of le Liga, with the group already won

 

[dricha1]

to be honest Barca might put a strong team out v weaker opponents and play an understrength v us (hoping) as it's pretty tight at the top of le Liga, with the group already won

I hope so, we should be able to beat their kids...we must!

 

[vegassd]

the thing is I understand the permutations, but to of played 1 team 11 seasons running as a home fixture 1st and 70% of the time in the 1st 5 to 6 fixtures of the season looks like very lazy workings.

also with Arsenal I know it's pretty unlikely to happen while City will dominate, but if we was ever in a position for the title wouldn't it be great for us to play at the Library with 4 games to go and a 10pts lead (I know) and a chance of revenge after they have done it at the old lane twice

Paul Merson was talking the other day about how great the 88/89 season was because Arsenal were at Anfield on the final day of the season in the game that settled the league winners. He was talking about how the whole end of the season was more dramatic because it was building towards that game.

It seems like that sort of match up is never going to happen again - possibly because of the TV influence. There will usually be enough interest in the opening and closing weekends that there is no need to put "big" games on those weekends in order to attract viewers.

 

[Lemon]

In for we, in for we, they got it in for we.

Does seem a very odd anomaly.

 

[Lighty64]

Paul Merson was talking the other day about how great the 88/89 season was because Arsenal were at Anfield on the final day of the season in the game that settled the league winners. He was talking about how the whole end of the season was more dramatic because it was building towards that game.

It seems like that sort of match up is never going to happen again - possibly because of the TV influence. There will usually be enough interest in the opening and closing weekends that there is no need to put "big" games on those weekends in order to attract viewers.

them days they never banned replays in the FA Cup. that game was moved due to one of them or even both having a cup run with a few replays that meant the fixture needed rescheduling and the only date was after the final weekend. the game was put on TV but at the time Live matches was still only 1 possibly 2 games a week then

 

[chavkev]

The Liverpool/Arsenal finale was rescheduled as a result of Hillsborough if memory serves me correctly.